[URBAN NOTE] "Blue Jays' resurgence triggers youth baseball boom"

[rfmcdonald]

The CBC's Jamie Strashin writes about the impact of the relatively strong Toronto Blue Jays on the youth game across Canada. Here's to hoping their first game tonight goes well.

Nearly 25 years later, Rob Butler still can't believe it.

"I was only 5-foot-9, the smallest player on every team I ever played on. I just somehow managed to grind my way up to the big leagues," Butler remembers during a phone call from the baseball facility he operates in Ajax, Ont., just outside of Toronto.

Butler's career was brief (he managed 200-plus at-bats spread over parts of four big league seasons) but memorable. The obvious highlight for the Toronto native was being part of the Blue Jays' 1993 World Series-winning team. He remains the lone Canadian to win baseball's biggest prize as a Jay.

Butler says it was the Blue Jays' early success in the 1980s that pushed him towards what he calls the "greatest" game.

"[The Jays] really impacted what I thought about baseball and how much I loved playing and how I wanted to play every day," Butler says. "It was never a dream of making it to the majors because nobody in Canada really did back then.

"It was just a love of the game."